Woohoo! It's official. What you didn't know before was that the baby we were all calling Margaret, actually, officially, hadn't been named yet. That all changed today when I went to the Birth Registry and gave the official government functionary behind the desk a name. Two, actually. Her Chinese and English ones. There is now, according to the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region an actual human being on record named Margaret McLean Tsien. Very cool. I couldn't stop staring at the official birth certificate once I had it in my hot little hands.
Now, it's to get her passport and US documentation taken care of. What you see above is a reject from her passport photo shoot.
Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be getting her US and Hong Kong passport applications in. Yes, you heard right. Apparently, because of the facts surrounding my birth, Margaret is actually eligible to have "Right of Abode" here in Hong Kong, and since both HK and the US allow dual citizenship, we're going to go ahead and do it.
I feel like it's kind of a cool way to reflect how our family is both East and West.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
In other news, I've discovered that in some moments, parenting a newborn resembles nothing less than stark insanity. A couple of nights ago, Margaret had an extremely loud poop. Upon changing, both SAM and I were so impressed at the sheer volume of the poop (I mean, the diaper was just completely FULL) that we were beside ourselves with genuine, honest to goodness, pride!
I think that with most sane people, it would have ended there. However, both of us were thinking that this was such a momentous occasion that we should have a record. Feeling a photo would be too, well, scatological, we simultaneously suggested to break out the postal scale and get some actual numbers instead. As if weighing a poopy diaper would be somehow more mature and scientific than simply posting a photo of excrement.
Here you see the proof that we're off our rockers. It weighed 147 grams / 5.1 Ounces. An empty diaper weighs 19 grams / 0.6 Ounces. We finally abandoned the exercise when I realized two things - one, that as she grows older, the diapers will only get heavier and most importantly, two, that to truly verify that this was a mondo poop would require me measuring previously soiled diapers.
For some reason, at that point, I actually considered it and dismissed the idea not because it was completely insane, but because I was too tired and there weren't enough diapers anyway to get a decently low margin of error (t-test aside).
Even with the descent into madness, however, such sweet madness it is.
Margaret day to day
Margaret continues to grow and change on an almost daily basis. Even in photos, we feel like she looks different now from the ones taken at her birth. In person, the changes are even more obvious.
Whereas before, she either had her "on" mode (screaming), or off and quiet, she's now expanded her vocal repertoire to include multiple volume levels and several kinds of birdlike chirps, coos and cute little grunts. We're very proud.
Also, lately, when hungry, she's taken to feeding in a manner that we like to call, "Hyper-Feedilating" because it sounds like she's hyperventilating. The best way to describe what happens is that she tries to suck so fast and so hard that she makes grunting/squeaking noises like an old rusty bucket being lowered into an open well. Sometimes she chokes on the milk as it comes out. I've got video - one of these days, I'll post it. It's actually quite funny.
One thing that we were concerned about is that her skin has been peeling. Though we understand now that it is normal (confirming with our friends Lindsay and Graham who have one 3 days older than Margaret, my mom and my aunt who is a physician), it still hurts us to look at poor little Margaret's peeling, flaking, scaly skin. At first we thought we were doing something wrong during bathing or that maybe we didn't realize that babies needed moisturizing. But now we're just waiting it out.
These days of our lives
Bouts of craziness aside, the past couple of days have been busy ones full of family, friends and visitors. Margaret is becoming quite the social butterfly, entertaining all of these guests! Besides my aunt, and several of of my mom's friends, my Godparents came with their son, Howard. It was great having them here in our home to visit Margaret and it was incredibly sweet of them to stop in on the way from the airport to a wedding reception. We are honored.
We've been managing to make small but new adjustments that keep us functional. We've learned how to get work done with Margaret in our laps. Sam has learned how to perform all manner of tasks while feeding. Bathing has improved with her not screaming out her lungs every time she hits the water.
Life is great and every day full of more discoveries and happinesses than the last. As we pick ourselves up from the freight train that was giving birth, we're really starting to discover so many more joys in having Margaret than we could have imagined.
We're looking forward to all the tomorrows ahead of us.
I'll keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment